Walter Bock

Organisms are the result of evolutionary history and continue
to survive because of the way they interact as individuals
with the demands placed on them by their external environment.
My research lies in the general area of organismal and evolutionary biology, with special emphasis on functional and evolutionary
morphology of the skeletomuscular system. In particular, most of
my research deals with the feeding apparatus of birds. I have
chosen this area because the feeding apparatus is essential to
the survival of individual organisms, because great diversity
exists in the feeding apparatus of birds, and because the subject
is sufficiently complex to permit insights into the questions of
integrated morphological systems without being overwhelmed by
details. Theskeletomuscular system is analyzed using a series of
mechanical approaches, including free-body analysis. Special
care is taken to look at all levels of organization from the
fiber level to that of the whole feeding apparatus, using both
reductionistic and integrative approaches.

My evolutionary studies center on the questions of biological
adaptation and major evolutionary change. Most of this work
is theory development. It has been essential to include ideas
from the philosophy of science, as, for example, types of
explanations. Some of the work deals with particular evolutionary
events such as the origin of flight in birds, including the origin
of avian flight. These evolutionary studies also include
systematics based on comparative morphological analyses. Most of
these taxonomic studies are on higher categorical levels, namely
families of birds. However, I am also involved in compiling a
second edition of a list of avian species of the world that
necessitates an understanding of species taxonomy and the many
problems of geographical variations.